Car or train lighting system for electric railways.



Patented Sept. 26, |899. E. R. HILL.

CAR 0R TRAIN LIGHTING SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC BAILWAYS.

(Application led Apr. 14, 1899.)

(No Model.)

W/TNE SSE S 32ML@ 6M mams PETERS co'. wo'mLI-rno., WASHINGTON, n4 c.

UNITED STATES PATENT CEEIcE.

IVESTINGIIOUSE PENNSYLVANIA.

ELECTRIC AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF

CAR OR TRAIN LIGHTING SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

lSTtECII1`ICA'JIO1\I forming part of Letters Patent No. 683,971, dated September 26, 1899.

Application led April 14,1899. Serial No, 713,016. (No model To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ERNEST R. IIILL, a citi- 'Zen of the United States, residing at Tilkinsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Car or Train Lighting Systems forElectric Railways, (Case No. 823,) of which the following is a speciiication.

lily invention relates to electric railways and particularly to railways operated by systems which embody positive, negative, and neutral contact-conductors, between two of which the motor or motors and the electric lights 'are connected.

In three-wire electric-railway systems the positive and negative contact-conductors are usually arranged either in alternating sections or continuously along parallel or substantially parallel lines of track, andin order to avoid short circuits it is essential that the current-collecting devices shalln not bridge the space between adjacent conductors of opposite sign in the one case or the conductors of opposite signin passing from one track to the other in the other case. The momentum of the car or train may be depended upon to carry the current-coilectin g devices over from one contact-conductor to the next, and thus avoid any considerable disarrangement or discomfort by reason of the interruption of the supply of current to the motor or motors. In the case of lamps employed for lighting the car or train, however7 such interruption of the current is decidedly objectionable.

The object of my present invention is to provide a system and combination of circuits by means of which the car or train may pass from a positive to a negative conductor, or vice versa, without cutting off the illumination or power and at the same time avoiding the establishment of a short circuit.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a diagram of a three-wire railway system constructed and arranged in accordance with my invention; and Fig. 2 is a similar view ot' a modiiied arrangement of circuits.

Reference being had to Fig. l, l and 2 are direct-current generators which may be of the usual type employed in railway work, they being connected in series, as is usual in three-wire systems. The positive feeder 3 is connected to sectional contact-conductors 4, extending along the line of the railway, and the negative line-'feeder is connected to sectional contact-conductors I5, which alternate with the positive contact-conductors 4. I have represented cach oi the contactconductors A and G by mea-ns oi a line that is partially dot-ted in order to indicate that these conductors are of much greater length than it is possible to indicate by the actual length of the lines in the drawings, they being in practice many times the length of the spaces between the adjacent ends of the sections. The neutral conductor 7 may be continuous and connected between the two generators l and 2. This neutral conductor is here indicated as the track-rails, it being understood that such .rails will be connected and bondedso as to make a good conductingpath for the current. A contact-conductor separate and independent from the trackrails may be employed for this purpose, il' desired, but ordinarily the rails, suitably connected and bonded, will serve the purpose equally well and at a less expense.

The car is represented by two wheels S and 9 resting upon the track 7 and propelled by one or more electric motors, two of such motors lO and ll being here indicated. Two sets or series of lamps l2 and i3 are also shown for illuminating the car.

The current-collecting apparatus comprises two contact-shoes l-l, electrically connected so as to constitute, in effect, a single contact device, and two shoes l5, connected together in the same manner so as to constitute, in effeet, another single contact device. The contact-shoes ll span a space of less length than the distance between adjacent conductors a and (S, and shoes l5 also span a space ol' less length than the distance between the adjacent ends of adjoining conductors .Je and l. The two pairs of slices, however, overlap in position, so that the rear shoe does not leave its contact -conductor until the forward shoe makes contact with the next contact-conductor of opposite sign. The shoes ll are connected to one terminal of the motor lO and one terminal of the lamp-circuit l2, and

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the shoes 15 are connected to the one termi nal ol' the motor 11 and one terminal ol the lamp-circuit 13. rEhe other terminals of both motors and both lamp-circuits are connected through the wheels of the car to the track or neutral conductor 7.

lt will be understood from the Aforegoing and the known structural and operative conditions pertaining to three-wire systems of distribution that the difference ot potential between the neutral conductor and each of the other feeding-conductors is one-half that between the positive and negative conductors.

It will be seen that when both pairs of shoes 14 and 15 are in contact with the same contact-conductor, whether the same be positive or negative, both motors and both sets of lamps will be supplied with current at a pressure equal to one-half the potential between the feeders and XVhen the car is in the position shown in the drawings, only the motor 10 and lamps 12 will be supplied with current, and at the next step, when the outside shoe 15 comes into contact with the cond uetor 4, assuming that the car is moving from right to left, the rear shoe la will leave the conductor o', and only the motor 11 and lamps lwill then be in circuit until both the forward shoes 14- and 15 come into engagement with the contactconductor 4C. lt follows, therefore, that during the greater portion of the time both sets of lamps will be in circuit and that during short periods only one of the sets will be in circuit. While this arrangement is not such as to provide an absolutely uniform illumination, yet with aproper number of lamps in each set the i'licker in passing` from one contact-conductor to another will be so small as to produce no serious discomfort.

liefert-ing now to Fig. 2, l have shown the generators 1 and 2 as respectively connected by means of their outside' terminals to continuous contact-conductors 3 and 5, these being severallyT arranged along` separa-te lines of track. These separate tracks or lines of track 7 and 7b are connected together in parallel at numerous points and at one end are connected to a point between the two generators, thus constituting', in effect, asingleneutral conductor. As here shown, these neutral conductors are the track-rails, it being understood that they are suitably connected and bonded to provide agood cond noting-path for the current Vfor operating the vehicles running over the same. lfllhere two or more lines of track are arranged substantially as indicated in this ligure of the drawings, it is usually necessary to provide suitable switches and Crossovers to enable cars to pass from one track to another. .I have illustrated such an arrangement in this iigure, the crossover track being indicated at 7C. In order to provide the motors and lights with current while passing from one track to the other, the positive conductor 5DL is .provided with an extension el", parallel to the track 70, and the couductor 5 is provided with a similar extension G, also parallel to the tracks 7". A. space is left between the ends of the extensions at and 6, and this space is made sufficient with ref erence to the distance spanned by the shoes lft and 15, as already described in connection with Fig. 1, so that there will be 4no short circuit established, but so that the one or the other of the sets of lamps 12 and 13 will be always supplied with current. rl`he single car and equipment shown in connection with this figure are the same as those shown in connection with Fig. 1, except that only a' single motor 10 is here indicated, the shoes 15 being here employed solely as the terminal ofthe lamp-circuit 13.

It will be understood that any desired number of motors per car may be employed in order to provide the desired propelling power and a proper distribution of the weight, and also that my invention may be utilized in connection with either a single car or a train of cars.

Assuming that a train of cars is employed, two of which-one at the front and the other at the rear, for example are equipped with motors, each of the motor-cars may be provided with two shoes, as indicated in the drawings, and each car of the train be provided with two sets of lamps, one of such sets being connected to one pair of contactshoes and the other set to the other pair. The lamps for the entire train may be supplied from either motor-car, or, if desired, one half may be supplied from one motor-car and the other halt from the other.

1n case atrain is provided with two motorcars it is within my invention to employ only one contact-shoe or one pair of electricallyconnected shoes for each of said cars and two lamp-circuits for the entire train, one terminal of one lamp-circuit being connected to one shoe and one terminal of the other circuit to the other shoe. lVith this arrangement it is obvious that one or both of the sets of lamps will always be in circuit with the source of current. I have shown such an ar rangement on the upper track in Fig. i?.

It will also be understood that the lighting system here illustrated and described may be employed in connection with cars or trains that are propelled otherwise than by electric motors, if desired.

In the propulsion of a car or a train by a plurality of electric motors supplied either severally or in pairs or sets through separate current-collecting devices which collectively span a greater space than that between adjacent ends of contact-conductors, as indicated in the drawings, the car or train is obviously at all times subjected to the propelling torce of at least one motor, except when the circuit is broken at the controller. This insures greater economy and smoothness ot' operation than is possible where the motors are all periodically cut out of circuit as the current-ooh IOO IIO

lcctors pass from section to section of the contact-conductor.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a lighting system for railway-vehicles embodying positive, `negative and neutral contact-conductors, a car or train provided with two current-collecting devices arranged to severally engage one or both of the positive and negative contact-conductors, and two sets of lamps severally connected between the respective collecting devices and the neutral conductor.

2. In a lighting system for railway-vehicles embodying positive, negative and neutral conductors, a motor-car provided with means for connecting its motor or motors at certain times between a positive and a neutral conductor and at other times between a neutral and a negative conductor, in combination with two independent sets of lamps, at least one of which is at all times in circuit either between the positive and the neutral conductor or between the neutral and the negative conductor.

3. In a lighting system for railway-vehicles embodying continuons neutral contact-conductors and interrupted positive and negative contact-conductors, a car or train having two independent current-collecting devices for making contact with the positive and negative conductors each of which spans a less space than that between adjacent ends of positive and negative conductors, but both of which combine to span a greater space than that between adjacent endsof such conductors, in combination with two independent sets of lamps respectively connected between said current-collecting devices and the neutral conductor.

4. In an electric railway embodying continuous neutral contact-conductors land interrupted positive and negative contact-conv'- ductors, a car or train provided with two independent current-collecting devices which together serve to span a space of greater length than that between the ends of adjacent contact-conductors of opposite sign, said ourL rent-collecting devices constitutingindependont lamp-circuit terminals and at least one of them constituting a motor-circuit terminal.

5. In an electric railway embodying a continuous neutral contact-conductor and sec-4 tional positive and negative contact-com ductors alternating with each other, a car provided with two independent sets of lamps and with two independent, overlapping current-collectin g devices one of which is always in contact with either a positive or a negative conductor but which severally span a space less than that between the ends ot' adjacent contact-conductors, said devices constituting independent lamp-circuit terminals and at least one of these constituting a motor-circuit terminal.

G. In an electric railway embodying a conL tinuous neutral contact-conductor and intere rupted positive and negative contact-conductors, a car or train provided with a plurality of propelling-motors and a plurality of independent current collecting devices which collectively span a space of greater length than that between the adjacent ends of the interrupted conductors, the currentcollecting devices severally constituting terminals for separate motoneircuits.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto sub scribed my name this 13th day of April, 1899.

ERNEST R. HILL.

lVitnesses:

WESLEY G. CARR, Il. C. TENER. 

